I am Campaigns and Networking Coordinator at Baby Milk Action, which monitors the baby food industry. Our aim is to protect breastfeeding and babies fed on formula from practices that put profits before health. This is a daily look behind the scenes of the work of Baby Milk Action, including the boycott of Nestlé (the worst of the baby food companies), which we promote in the UK. See the Baby Milk Action website if you are unfamiliar with our work.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Baby Feeding Law Group – read all about it

Somebody left a comment recently on a blog about the great new Baby Feeding Law Group flier.

It is great. Here is the front of it.

The Baby Feeding Law Group was convened some years ago to work for the implementation of World Health Assembly marketing requirements in the UK. It is made up of health professional organisations and mother support groups.

If you have been following this blog, you will know that the UK is pretty dire when it comes to implementing the marketing requirements. So dire in fact that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child said in 2003 (after we presented written evidence) that the Government should implement the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

Over three years later we are still waiting, though the Government did give a commitment in its public health white paper to strengthen the UK law on infant formula and follow-on formula and did call for strengthening of the EU Directive from which these derive (though with little success).

The movement we have seen from the Government is largely due to the work of the Baby Feeding Law Group, in the face of lobbying from the baby food industry and its front organisations, such as INFORM (more about that soon).

More will unfold on the UK situation this year as the Government has to take action to implement the changes in the EU Directive and will review the legislation at the same time (you can download the recently published directive via the BFLG website).

Pen and paper ready people, there is another campaign coming to try to get the Government to protect mothers and infants.

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